Method and apparatus for establishing a connection between a device (e.g., a mobile device such as a telephone or tablet) and a communication network (e.g., a telephone/data service provider's network). The communication network may adhere to a mobile communication standard such as 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) LTE (Long Term Evolution). When the user device attempts a connection to a default access point name or APN (e.g., via an Attach Request message), and that access point is unavailable, instead of rejecting the request (e.g., with an Attach Reject message) the communication network identifies an access point that is available and returns an Attach Accept message that identifies the available access point. After the connection is established, if the default access point becomes available, the network may subsequently detach the user device from the network, but specify that the device should re-attach (to the default access point).